Which translation tools keep subfolder URLs and hreflang for international SEO?

Last updated: 4 November 2026

A translation tool is good for international SEO if every language gets its own crawlable URL, each page carries correct hreflang tags, and the title, description and slug are translated along with the body text. Subfolders such as example.com/fr/ are the most common way to do it, and subdomains work too. Tools that only swap text in the browser on a single URL cannot offer the first requirement.

This guide gives you the checks to run on any tool, an honest comparison of the main types, and a short list for switching without losing rankings. Competitor details below are what their own documentation said in November 2026, so check their docs before you decide.

Search engines index URLs, not languages

Google's guidance on localized versions is built around the idea that each language version has its own fully qualified URL, with hreflang annotations linking the versions together. If a translated page has no address of its own, there is nothing to put in those annotations and nothing for a crawler to index separately.

Everything else in this article follows from that. A tool can have excellent translation quality and still do nothing for your French search traffic if French only exists as a state of the page in a visitor's browser.

Hreflang, x-default and canonical must agree

Hreflang tells search engines which URL serves which language. Google states that if two pages do not point to each other, the tags are ignored, so every version has to list itself and all the others. It also defines x-default as the fallback for users whose language matches none of your versions, usually a language picker or your main version.

Tags can sit in the HTML head, in HTTP headers, or in the XML sitemap, and Google says the methods are equivalent. The canonical tag is where tools quietly go wrong. If the French page canonicalises to the English one, the French page drops out of the index whatever the hreflang says. Check that each language version is its own canonical.

Translated titles, descriptions and slugs

A French page with an English title tag still ranks poorly for French queries, because the title is the strongest on-page text a search engine reads. Translated meta descriptions affect the click-through rate in French results. Translated URL slugs are a smaller signal, but they make a result look native, and some tools support them while others do not.

Also check the sitemap. Whether each language URL appears in an XML sitemap, or in hreflang entries inside it, decides how fast new translated pages are discovered.

Three kinds of tool and what each does to your URLs

Proxy or hosted-subfolder tools sit between visitors and your site, or hook into your CMS, and serve translated pages at /fr/ or fr. addresses. You get separate URLs without rebuilding the site. The cost is a DNS or routing change.

Plugin-based tools run inside the CMS. They create translated posts or pages, and the plugin picks the URL format. The cost is that they are tied to one CMS and to the way it stores content.

JavaScript widgets are a script tag that rewrites text in the browser. They install in minutes on any site and need no routing changes. Whether they can give each language an address of its own depends on the product, and that is the question to ask.

How the main options compare

Tool	Language URLs	Hreflang	Source
Weglot	Subdirectories or subdomains	Added automatically, per Weglot	weglot.com/blog
GTranslate	Sub-directory and sub-domain on paid plans; the free version gives no SEO advantage, per the vendor	Listed by the plugin	wordpress.org/plugins/gtranslate
WPML	Directories, a domain per language, or a ?lang= parameter	See WPML docs	wpml.org
WeLocale	Same URL, language chosen with a ?lang= parameter	Injected by the script on Pro and Scale	Our own code and docs

WPML's documentation lists the parameter format as an option that needs no server changes, and the directory format as one that needs Apache's rewrite module and pretty permalinks. If you use WPML, pick directories. Where the table says "see docs", we did not verify the detail and are not claiming it.

For a longer tool-by-tool list, see our Weglot alternatives guide.

Questions to ask before you switch

Run this against any vendor, including us.

1. Does each language have its own URL, and is it a subfolder, subdomain or parameter?
2. Is hreflang present in the HTML the crawler fetches, or only after JavaScript runs?
3. Does every version list all the others, plus x-default?
4. Is each language page its own canonical?
5. Are the title and meta description translated, and can you edit them?
6. Are translated pages in the XML sitemap?
7. Can you translate slugs, and does the old URL redirect?
8. What happens to the translated URLs if you cancel?

Question 8 matters more than it looks. If the URLs exist only while the subscription is active, your international rankings are rented.

Where a script-only translation layer stands

WeLocale is a script-tag product, so this is the section where we have to be straight about our own limits. In the code, the widget sets the language through a ?lang= parameter on the same URL, not through /fr/ subfolders. On Pro and Scale it injects hreflang, x-default, a canonical tag, og:locale, the html lang attribute and translated title and description, but it does so in the browser after the page loads. It does not translate slugs, and there is no server-side prerendering of translated pages today.

Our robots.txt allows the API endpoints the widget needs so Google's renderer can run it. We have not measured whether Google indexes ?lang= variants as separate pages for our customers, so we do not claim it. If subfolder URLs are a hard requirement, a subfolder-based tool is the better choice. Our Weglot comparison says the same about slugs. Where translation speed and price matter more than owning indexable language URLs, a widget is a reasonable trade.

You can generate correct tags for any setup with the free hreflang generator.

Moving without losing rankings

1. Crawl your current site and export every indexed language URL before you change anything.
2. Keep the old tool running until the new one is verified on a staging copy or a few pages.
3. Match URL patterns where you can. If /fr/ exists today, keep /fr/.
4. If URLs must change, set up 301 redirects from every old address to its new one. GTranslate's own docs recommend this when moving between sub-directory and sub-domain.
5. Re-submit the sitemap in Google Search Console and watch the Pages report for a few weeks.
6. Expect a dip. Rankings rarely move in a straight line during a migration.

If your hreflang tags are already being ignored, this debugging guide covers the usual causes, and the wider picture is in multilingual SEO.

FAQ

Is a subfolder better than a subdomain for international SEO?

Both give each language its own URL, which is what search engines need. Subfolders are the more common choice and are simpler to maintain, since the pages stay on one domain. Subdomains work if your infrastructure already uses them. Consistency matters more than the choice.

Do I need hreflang if each language has its own URL?

Yes. Separate URLs make the pages indexable, and hreflang tells search engines which version belongs to which audience. Without it, Google may show the wrong language to a searcher.

Can a JavaScript widget rank in other languages?

Only if the translated content ends up on indexable URLs. A widget that changes text on a single URL gives search engines little to index per language. Test by searching site:yourdomain.com for a translated phrase after a few weeks.

Should the URL slug be translated?

It is optional. Translated slugs help a result look native, but a missing translated slug is not a reason to reject a tool whose other SEO basics are right.

Will I lose rankings if I switch translation tools?

You can limit the loss by keeping URL patterns identical, or by redirecting every old URL with a 301 and resubmitting the sitemap. Expect some fluctuation for a few weeks.

Does WeLocale offer a free plan?

Yes. Free plan, no card required. It does not include hreflang tags, which start on the Pro plan.